'Right up my clacka': Drug driver goes off the rail

Ross Irby
Reporter
Reporter Ross Irby has wander-lust mixed with a sense of adventure, spending way too many years roaming about Australia, its back roads and off-shore foreign lands.
Enjoys a yarn, story telling and tales, along with curiosity to find out about the lives and (mis)adventures of others.
An off-beat sense of humour, not taking it all too seriously, along with big doses of flexibility/adaptability whatever the situation is the best way to go.
You have to have the life experiences to have empathy...

IT WAS not Santa Claus but the boys in blue who startled a snoozy driver on Christmas Day.

The man then struck a metal guard rail in his Toyota Corolla after drifting off the road.

Ipswich Magistrates Court this week heard that 42-year-old Slacks Creek man Antony Paul Willox had drugs in his system when he crashed his vehicle on the Warrego Highway last Christmas.

He pleaded guilty to a range of offences including two counts of drug driving, driving without due care and attention, and driving while suspended. The drug driving incidents occurred on two separate dates in December.

Police prosecutor Senior Constable Bernard Elmore said mobile police noticed a silver Corolla at 8.15am on December 25 travelling along the highway near the Lowood-Minden Rd intersection.

Willox was travelling east and trying to pass cars in an 80km/h zone.

The Corolla merged left and swerved right and was then seen to collide with a guard rail.

Police activated their flashing lights and intercepted Willox, who told them he must have dozed off for a second.

"He said he'd slept a couple of hours the night before after driving friends to Toowoomba," Snr Const Elmore said.

Snr Cnst Elmore said that in another incident Willox was intercepted at Regents Park on December 3.

He tested positive to methylamphetamine.

Willox told the court that he drove when his licence was suspended as he had not been notified.

"I was travelling down the highway (Christmas morning), I was overtaking a car up a hill and a horse float," he said.

"I noticed the police up behind me.

"It freaked me a bit as they were right up my clacka. A matter of them coming up behind me as they did freak me."

Magistrate Donna MacCallum again asked Willox if he wanted a lawyer for his matters, warning him he would lose his licence for a long time.

He again declined, saying he was prepared to cop the punishment on the chin.

Ms MacCallum fined him $1200, and disqualified his licence for two years and three months respectively for the drug driving offences.